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ADDRESS 



LIFE, CHARACTER, AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



WILLIAM McKINLEY 



DELIVERED 

BEFORE THE McKINLEY ASSOCIATION OF CONNECTICUT, 

AT NEW HAVEN, JANUARY 29, 1904 



FRANK B. BRANDEGEE 

M. C. from Connecticut 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

JUDD & DRTWEH,ER, PRINTERS 

I 904 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the McKinley Association of Connec- 
ticut : 

Before entering upon the particular subject of my address 
I desire to express my deep gratification at the high honor 
conferred upon me by your invitation to this banquet, and 
my appreciation of the very nattering compliment implied 
in your selection of me as one of the speakers of this even- 
ing ; nor can I refrain from congratulating this Association 
upon its organization, its distinguished membership, and 
this magnificent assemblage in celebration of its nativity. 
It is particularly fitting that this gathering should be held 
in the city of New Haven, at once the seat of a famous 
university of learning and a representative of the culture 
and refinement of all that is best and highest in American 
life, American ideals, and American citizenship. The Re- 
publican party has always stood for education, for freedom, 
for morality, and for national prosperity. By your forma- 
tion of this club you have shown that Republicanism in 
Connecticut is a harmonious, united, aggressive, and enthu- 
siastic force, and that you are proud of your past history 
and confident of a glorious future. In your choice of a 
name you have paid homage to the memory of one of our 



most beloved leaders and one of the greatest statesmen of 
the age, and in the number and character of your members 
you give evidence that Republican principles and policies 
are still cherished by the intelligence and good citizenship 
of our historic Commonwealth. You have entered upon a 
field of vast usefulness and influence, and will prove an in- 
spiration and a tower of strength to the cause of good gov- 
ernment in both State and Nation. 



A NATION MOURNS. 

On Thursda}', the nineteenth day of September, 1901, this 
country presented a remarkable spectacle. On that day, for 
a period of five minutes after half past two o'clock in the 
afternoon, the whole nation stood still with bated breath. 
From the St. Lawrence to the Mexican gulf and from the 
Atlantic to the Golden Gate, human activity ceased. The 
rush of business was stilled. The hum of industry was 
hushed. Commerce was suspended. No wheel turned. 
Every sound was quieted. A solemn silence prevailed 
throughout the land. Great funeral parades halted and 
stood at attention. Railroad trains on the mountain sides, 
steamships on the rivers, and street cars in the cities — all 
came to a stop, wherever they were. The electric tele- 
graph forbore its nervous clicking, silenced by the sorrow 
that does not speak. Eighty millions of people stood with 
bared heads and reverent hearts while the bells of all the 
churches in the land tolled in mournful expression of a 

P. 
5f 



nation's grief. The mortal remains of William McKinley 
were being tenderly committed to their last resting place. 
The trinity of martyr Presidents was complete. For the 
third time in our history the head of this free Republic had 
been laid low by the hand of an assassin. The beloved 
chief magistrate, the gallant soldier, the profound statesman, 
the great debater, the famous orator, the idol of the people, 
after fifty-eight years of life devoted to his country's serv- 
ice, had been murdered, for no intelligible reason, by a 
vile miscreant so obscure that it was with difficulty that he 
could be identified. Sorrow and mourning and horror for 
the dastardly deed were not confined to this land. The 
civilized world sympathized in our bereavement and joined 
in our deep affliction. Canada, Mexico, and the nations of 
the Old World paid loving tribute to the departed President. 
In London, solemn obsequies were held in the stately cathe- 
dral of St. Paul's, and the princes of church and state 
thronged the Abbey of Westminster — England's imperial 
mausoleum of the illustrious dead of a thousand years — to 
honor his great name. We are assembled here to recall his 
memory, to recount his achievements, and to take to onr 
hearts the lessons to be learned from his distinguished serv- 
ices and his lofty character. What were those services 
and whence were derived those intellectual and moral 
qualities which raised him from the obscure station of a 
poor country boy to the chief magistracy of the grandest 
and freest nation in all the tide of time ? 



DESCENT AND BOYHOOD. 

William McKinley was of Scotch-Irish descent — that 
mingled blood which has furnished such a long list of illus- 
trious names to the annals of the Anglo-Saxon race. He 
inherited the prudence and tenacity of purpose which be- 
long to the Scotch, together with that versatility and gift of 
eloquence which are characteristic of the Irish race. His 
father, also named William, was born November 15, 1807, 
on the Dougherty farm, in Mercer county, Pennsylvania. 
At the age of twenty-two the father married Nancy 
Campbell Allison. Of this union nine children were born — 
four boys and five girls. The senior MeKinle}' was a man- 
ager of iron furnaces, and while engaged in that occupation 
at Niles, Ohio, whither he had moved, William McKinley, 
Junior, was born there on January 29, 1843, just sixty 
years ago today. From Niles they moved to Poland, Ohio, 
to take advantage of the educational facilities afforded by 
the Poland Academv. At this time the future President 
was only a child ; and his boyhood was spent in the little 
agricultural and mining village of Poland. This place is 
the most southeastern township of the original Western Re- 
serve, and one of the original laud company from Con- 
necticut settled there. From the age of fourteen to eighteen 
young McKinley attended the academy, read law in the 
evening until midnight, assisted the village postmaster in his 
work, taught school, and devoted himself to the varied tasks 



5 

by which a country boy might contribute toward his sup- 
port. At the age of sixteen he became a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church of Poland, and was a constant 
attendant and a close and earnest student in his Bible class. 
Even at this early age he gave evidence of his talent for 
debate, and soon became the leader of the village debating 
society. His parents were hard-working and God-fearing 
people — serious, industrious, moral, and of the strictest 
integrity. His father died in 1892, at the advanced age of 
eighty-five years, and his mother lived to the ripe age 
of nearly ninety years, and died in 1897, with her son, 
then President, at her bedside. In this Christian home 
of frugal habits the foundations of his character were 
laid broad and deep, and they never failed him in 
after life. In 1860. the irrepressible conflict drew near. 
Abraham Lincoln, with the inspiration of a prophet 
of old, had riveted the attention of the world by the 
words which seared themselves into the minds of men, 
"This country cannot permanently endure half slave and 
half free." The country at once perceived the truth and the 
awful portent of the statement. The fact had long lain half 
hidden in the consciousness of men; but, hoping and praying 
for a solution of the problem, they had refused to contemplate 
the terrible alternative. Now they were face to face with 
the momentous issue. The policy of compromise, which 
had been the sole aim and result of the highest statesmanship 
for a generation, was abandoned. Lincoln became President. 
The secession of States began and continued. The military 



arm of the nation had been despoiled and paralyzed. Trea- 
son lurked in every department of the Government and in 
every branch of the public service. The Union appeared 
to be tottering to its destruction. Chaos and anarchy 
seemed at hand. Sumter was fired upon and taken, and 
the nation's flag was hauled down and trampled in the 
dust. Lincoln called for volunteers, and his appeal was met 
with a patriotic uprising throughout the entire North. One 
instance will illustrate the prevailing spirit. In a small 
village of the West there was an old tavern, called the 
Sparrow inn, which had been built soon after the Revolu- 
tionary war. It was one of the stations for fugitive slaves 
on the " underground route " to Canada. On a day in June, 
1861, the inhabitants had assembled there. A speaker, 
pointing to the Stars and Stripes which hung on the w r all, 
said with impassioned utterance: "Our country's flag has 
been shot at. It has been trailed in the dust by those who 
should defend it; dishonored by those who should have 
cherished and loved it. And for what? That this free 
Government may keep a race in the bondage of slavery. 
Who will be the first to defend it?" A silence like death 
ensued. For an interval no movement was made. Then a 
lad pushed forward into the space in front of the speaker. 
He was a slender, gray-eyed youth, with a serious, thought- 
ful face, indicating both sweetness and strength, a frank and 
open gaze, a noble brow, and a strong curved nose. It was 
William McKinley. 



ENLISTS IN THE ARMY. 

He volunteered and at once enlisted in Company E of the 
Twenty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, on June 11, 1861, 
at the age of eighteen years. This regiment was composed 
largely of young men of New England descent. McKinley 
was only a boy and enlisted as a private. His career in the 
army was highly creditable. He discharged every duty 
faithfully and was repeatedly commended for bravery and 
efficiency. He was brevetted for gallant conduct on the 
bloody field of Antietam, and, as a staff officer, was con- 
stantly employed as a bearer of dispatches in the thick of 
the hottest fights. It was young McKinley who guided 
Sheridan through the rout of the Union army to the quar- 
ters of General Crook on the day of Sheridan's famous ride 
from Winchester, which resulted in transforming a threat- 
ened disaster into a decisive victory. Within a year of the 
time of his enlistment he was promoted to the rank of com- 
missary sergeant ; within six months from that date he was 
promoted to be second lieutenant ; five months afterwards 
he became a first lieutenant; after another five months 
he was made a captain. Eight months passed, and he was 
detailed as acting assistant adjutant general of the first divi- 
sion, first army corps, on the staff of General Carroll, and 
brevetted major. He was mustered out of service July 26, 
1865, having served with conspicuous bravery through the 
entire war. He had been a member of the staffs of Generals 



8 

Hayes, Crook, Hancock, and Sheridan. McKinley's regi- 
ment, the Twenty-third Ohio, contained many men after- 
wards highly distinguished. At the time of its formation 
its colonel was William S. Rosecrans, subsequently a famous 
general. Its lieutenant-colonel was Stanley Matthews, after- 
wards United States Senator from Ohio and a Justice of the 
United States Supreme Court. Its first major was Ruther- 
ford B. Hayes, who subsequently became an able general, 
thrice governor of his State, and President of the United. 
States. McKinley hated war. It was foreign to his whole 
nature. To use his own words, " Peace is the national de- 
sire and the goal of every American aspiration. The best 
sentiment of the civilized world is moving toward the settle- 
ment of differences between nations without resorting to the 
horrors of war. Let us ever remember that our interest is 
in concord, not conflict; and that our real eminence rests in 
the victories of peace, not those of war. We love peace 
better than war, and our swords never should be drawn ex- 
cept in a righteous cause, and then never until every effort 
at peace and arbitration shall be exhausted." 

Nevertheless, had he remained in the array, he was en- 
dowed with those attributes which would undoubtedly have 
made him a great commander. He had entered the service 
not because of a taste for a military career, but solely because 
he knew his country needed him at that time and needed him 
there most of all. Fidelity to duty was the mainspring 
of his existence. Duty called and he obeyed. The rough 
life, the temptations and passions which are so apt to vitiate 



9 

the character of the soldier in time of war, found him proof 
against their insidious influences. His nature and char- 
acter were impregnable against the assaults of evil, and, 
like a Crusader of old, he emerged from the four years' con- 
flict with morals and purposes elevated and fortified by the 
experiences of the most gigantic rebellion in history. 

RKTURNS TO CIVIL LIFE. 

He was now only twenty-two years of age — a youth in years, 
but a full man, measured by the experience and responsibili- 
ties of life. He at once returned to his home in Poland and 
re-entered civil life. He studied law with Judge Glidden,and 
also at the Albany Law School, and in 1867 he was admitted 
to the bar, and immediately began the practice of his profes- 
sion in Canton, whither he had moved. Within two years 
he was elected prosecuting attorney of Stark county, a strong- 
hold of Democracy, and, during a brilliant and aggressive 
campaign, first gave public evidence upon the stump of that 
wonderful ability which placed him in the very foremost 
rank of the world's greatest debaters. In 1871 he married 
Miss Ida Saxton, the daughter of a banker and leading- 
citizen of Canton, and for the next five years devoted him- 
self to his profession, and won enviable distinction as a 
lawyer, especially as an advocate in the trial of causes to 
the jury. 



10 



ENTERS PUBLIC IJFE. 



In 1876 he was elected a Representative in Congress, and 
from this date his career, as known to the people at large, 
may be said to have begun. He was then only thirty -three 
years of age. Most of the famous congressional careers have 
been made by men who entered the House in the 
strength of young manhood. Garfield, Blaine, Conkling, 
Reed, Clay, Webster, and Lincoln — all began their congres- 
sional life as young men. The Eighteenth Ohio district, 
which McKinley represented, was a manufacturing and min- 
ing district, and while McKinley inherited the tariff ideas of 
a Henry Clay Whig, his protective views were doubtless 
strengthened by his careful analysis of the needs of his con- 
stituency. He had hardly been two years in Congress 
when, the Wood tariff bill being under discussion, in 1878, 
McKinley delivered a speech in opposition which forthwith 
made for him a national reputation and, upon the election 
of Garfield to the Presidency two years later, secured for 
him Garfield's place on the Ways and Means Committee. 
Judge Kelley, of Pennsylvania, who, from his loyalty to the 
great metal industr}' of his State, earned the soubriquet of 
" Pig Iron Kelley," was at that time the leading exponent 
of the principle of protection to American industries. He 
saw at once that a new champion had been raised up for 
the "American system," and when he laid aside the mantle 
of leadership he placed it on McKinley's shoulders. 



11 



HIS LIFE WORK. 



And now McKinley was in the midst of the most dis- 
tinctive work of his life, and henceforth there is hardly a 
page of American history which does not bear the imprint 
of his genius. For the next twenty years the tariff was an 
issue in every State, congressional, and national campaign. 
McKinley was always in the thick of the fight. Indeed, he 
came to be the center about which the conflict raged. So 
completely had he impressed his views upon his party and, 
through it, upon the country, that the protective policy was 
everywhere popularly known as " McKinleyism." At home 
and abroad lie was acknowledged to be the preeminent 
exponent, not only of a protective tariff, but of a tariff for 
protection. So strong is political ambition in Ohio and so 
numerous are the aspirants for the honors of public life, 
that it was the custom in that State to allow to a Repre- 
sentative in Congress only two terms ; but McKinley so 
dominated his district and became a figure of such national 
importance that for fifteen years no other name in his party 
was mentioned to succeed him. Time and again his dis- 
trict was gerrymandered against him, and as often did he 
put his opponents to rout and wrest victory from the very 
jaws of defeat against great odds. While I had no close 
acquaintance with Mr. McKinley, I had met him and 
heard him on several occasions. I was a member of two 
national conventions to which he was also a delegate and 



12 

in the proceedings of which he took conspicuous part. He 
presided over one of them, that at Minneapolis in 1892. I 
had also met and had friendly conversation with him in 
the White House and had attended the convention in Phil- 
adelphia which nominated him for the Presidency in 1900. 

HIS PERSONAL TRAITS. 

His appearance was most impressive. A natural dignity 
of manner clothed him as with a garment. He was of 
medium height, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, and of a 
strong, compact build. He possessed great physical strength 
and had enormous power of endurance. His capacity for 
work was marvelous. He had a splendid head and counte- 
nance. One of his personal friends said of him, " His face 
was cast in a classic mold ; you see faces like it in antique 
marble in the galleries of the Vatican and in the portraits 
of the great cardinal-statesmen of Italy." His forehead 
was broad and massive ; his eyebrows were very thick and 
bushy ; his eyes were gray and piercing and set far back 
under his overhanging brow. His nose was like the beak 
of an eagle; his mouth was broad and firm and his chin 
was square and cleft in the middle. He was always per- 
fectly smooth-shaven and scrupulously neat. His ear was 
of the large and generous type and his hair was straight 
and rather long in the back of the neck. He uniformly 
wore a black frock coat, a black string tie, and a tall hat. 
He had an air of "breeding" and the noble gravity of a 



13 

Senator of the Roman Republic. He was perfectly cool 
and self-possessed. He never lost control of himself or of 
the situation. He was well poised and of unerring judg- 
ment. In forming his conclusions he was careful, deliber- 
ate, and painstaking, and when, upon reflection, he had ar- 
rived at a decision, he was firm and inflexible. His long 
experience in debate had taught him to weigh his words, 
and a certain caution and discretion in speech had become 
habitual with him, so that he rarely had to explain or mod- 
ify a statement. He was temperate in all things. He was 
tactful, even-tempered, kindly, considerate, and of infinite 
patience. In the hottest debates and the fiercest contests 
he gave no offense and bore no malice. He treated an 
opponent with a deference and courtesy that approached 
the chivalrous, and in the battles of the forum his shield 
always bore the motto, " Noblesse oblige." His convictions 
were of that intense earnestness which characterizes re- 
ligious faith, and he always had the courage of them. 

His belief in the American people was unbounded. He 
was intensely American. With him patriotism amounted 
to a passion. He loved the great army of toilers, the bone 
and sinew, the hope and the support of the Republic, whom 
Lincoln was wont to call the plain people. He expressed 
this sentiment in the words: "I am for America because 
America is for the common people." He loved and trusted 
the masses as no other statesman — Lincoln alone excepted — 
has ever done. And the intelligent democracy of the coun- 
try instinctively returned the confidence he reposed in them. 



14 

His sincerity was never doubted and bis good faith and 
singleness of purpose were apparent to tbe least discerning. 
He had the austere virtue of tbe ancient Covenanter, but 
was free from all hypocrisy, cant and self-righteousness. He 
fawned upon no man and he looked down upon none. 
He had that pride, the product of a wholesome self- 
respect, which does not permit undue familiarity, but 
he was the most accessible and approachable of men. 
His industry was absolutely unflagging. Whatever thing 
he undertook he conducted with the most indefatigable per- 
sistence. His attention to details was amazing. He pur- 
sued his object with undeviating pertinacity and with the 
most intense earnestness. He read, he studied, he marshaled 
facts and authorities; he collected and collated statistics ; 
he tabulated reports; he managed an enormous correspond- 
ence ; he examined the diversified industries of tbe land in 
their most minute ramifications ; he scrutinized the press 
and kept abreast of current trade literature; he investigated 
the causes of business phenomena ; he questioned employer 
and workman, producer and consumer, native and foreigner. 
All day long he was to be found in his committee-room, 
hearing and weighing the conflicting claims of all sorts of 
interests from all parts of the country. Every night until 
past midnight he was at his rooms in the Ebbitt House, 
buried in his books and papers and in consultation with his 
colleagues, who flocked to see him. At times he was in the 
minority, struggling to preserve such parts of the protective 
system as might be saved from the free-trade onslaughts of 



15 

the victorious majority. Again, he was inspiring his own 
party, doubting and wavering after some defeat, with his 
own sublime courage and confidence. 



AHEAD OF HIS PARTY. 

He had always been in advance of his party upon the 
great issue with which his name has been more particularly 
associated. At times some of the Republican leaders 
thought he was too far in advance. In one of the fiercest 
battles of the rebellion a Union regiment had advanced 
until it seemed impossible that a single life could survive 
the storm of shot and shell which rained upon it. The 
colonel was about to order his men to fall back when his 
attention was suddenly drawn to the color sergeant, a young 
boy, who, proudly bearing aloft the tattered Stars and Stripes, 
was still advancing through the leaden hail. The colonel, 
in stentorian tones, called out, " Sergeant, bring those colors 
back to the line ! " The young hero, with heightened color 
and flashing eyes, pointing to the old flag, for which he was 
willing to give his life, responded, "Colonel, bring the line 
up to the colors ! " William McKinley planted the flag of 
the Republican party upon the American policy of protec- 
tion to American industries, American wages, and American 
workmen, and then brought the party up to the colors. It 
is due to him, more than to any other, that this patriotic 
policy is now firmly established as the fixed law of the 
land. 



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LEADER OF THE HOUSE. 



He had served on the great Committee on Ways and 
Means for ten consecutive years, when, upon the death of 
William D. Kelley, in 1890, he became its chairman and 
the leader of his party in name as well as in fact upon the 
floor of the House. He introduced and secured the passage 
of the bill which bore his name — the famous McKinley 
tariff law. In certain sections the passage of this law was 
the signal of an outburst of hysterical fury. It was vio- 
lently attacked and misrepresented. Although the country 
was in the height of prosperity, a reaction against the Re- 
publican party set in, and this fact, together with the unfair 
rearrangement of his district by his political opponents, 
now driven to desperation, defeated McKinley for reelection ; 
but in the new district, composed of counties which had 
previously given Democratic majorities of three thousand, 
he was defeated by only three hundred votes. His oppo- 
nents now nattered themselves that they were rid of their 
most dangerous foe. Trickery, however, rarely profits its 
authors, and this is preeminently true of political chicanery. 
Like the boomerang, it returns to destro\ its promoter. 

GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 

In 1891 the Republicans of Ohio were spared the task of 
selecting a candidate for governor. Their opponents had 
done that for them. The whole State called for McKinley. 



17 

After a brilliant campaign, which was watched by the whole 
nation, he was elected governor by a plurality of over 
twenty -one thousand. Two years later, as the result of a 
still more dramatic campaign, he was reelected by what at 
that time was the unheard-of plurality of over eighty 
thousand. 

DEMOCRATIC HARD TIMES. 

Grover Cleveland was now President and the country was 
in the depths of despondency. The triumphant Democracy, 
in spite of the most solemn warnings and protests, devoid 
of statesmanship, but drunk with the pride of power and 
place and impelled by a blind and reckless spirit of partisan 
revenge, had repealed the McKinley law and enacted in its 
stead a statute so imbecile, so inequitable, and so wantonly 
destructive as to deserve the anathema hurled at it in ad- 
vance by a disgusted Democratic President, who character- 
ized it as a measure of " perfidy and dishonor." 

To emphasize his contempt for this measure, Mr. Cleve- 
land declined either to sign it or to veto it, and it became a 
law without his signature. The wreck and devastation 
produced by this disastrous legislation, of dubious origin 
and paternity, is still fresh in the public mind. Capital 
everywhere fled to cover. Industry was paralyzed. Com- 
merce languished. Factories closed their doors. Great 
mills shut down and armies of idle artisans begged in the 
streets. Public soup houses dispensed a scanty fare to fam- 
ishing mechanics. Skilled workmen besought employment 



18 

at an}' wage, however small. There were no strikes then — 
there was nothing to strike against. The panic of '93 came 
and left financial ruin in its path. The great commercial 
houses, the banks and exchanges of the country, valiantly 
exerted themselves to stay the progress of calamity, but 
in vain. The business heart of the nation still throbbed, 
but with a feeble and intermittent pulse. The whole coun- 
try lay prostrate. Universal stagnation prevailed. From 
out the doubt and perplexity and anguish of mind, the 
voice of the nation anxiously inquired, " Why is it, that 
amid all the mighty resources of the land, we are suffer- 
ing?" Back came the reply from McKinley, " I can answer 
in a word. The Democrats are running the Government, 
and nothing else is running. Every industry is practically 
stopped ; no man can calculate the loss to the people 
of this country in investment, property, and wages. 
We have been at school. It has been a universal, a sort of 
compulsory education, from the benefits of which none have 
been excluded. While the tuition has been free, the ulti- 
mate cost has been very great. We have been blessed with 
experience, if we have not been blessed with anything else. 
When confidence is shaken, misfortunes come — not singly, 
but in battalions — and suffering falls on every community. 
No part of our population is exempt." The country heard 
the answer and knew that it was sufficient and true. It had 
elected to try the " tariff reform " policy of the Democracy 
and had been plunged by it from the pinnacle of prosperity 
to the abyss of bankruptcy. It had now learned wisdom in 
the school of a bitter experience. 



1!' 



PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES. 



The presidential election of 1896 drew nigh. The de- 
mand for McKinley as the candidate of the Republican 
party became widespread and insistent. He of all others 
personified the American policy of protection. So confi- 
dent was the country that his nomination would restore 
good times that he was called "the advance agent of 
prosperity." But other names were pressed for the nom- 
ination — men who had achieved fame as orators, leaders, 
and statesmen. That matchless parliamentarian of the 
House, Thomas B. Reed of Maine; that wise and peer- 
less Nestor of the Senate, William B. Allison ; that sterling 
governor of the Empire State, Levi P. Morton ; that astute 
and powerful political general of the Keystone State, 
Matthew Stanley Quay, and many other favorite sons, all 
had their enthusiastic supporters and admirers. 

A POLITICAL NAPOLEON. 

At this juncture there arose a man previously unknown 
to the country at large, but one whose name had meant 
success in every field in which his energies had been 
employed. He saw that the people wanted McKinley, 
but that his nomination was in danger from the manipu- 
lations of rival political interests. He resolved that the 
people should not be thwarted in their desire. Up to 
that time he had had no political experience, but he had a 



i 



20 

mighty brain, a large and powerful acquaintance among 
men, an indomitable will, a marvelous genius for organiza- 
tion, a resistless energy, a contagious enthusiasm, an abiding 
and unshakable faith in Republican principles, and a bound- 
less confidence in and a measureless love and respect for 
William McKinley. This man was Marcus A. Hanna. He 
put himself at the head of the McKinley movement and in 
a canvass which for brilliancy, dash, and skill stands unique 
in political annals, effected McKinley's nomination by more 
than a two-thirds vote of the convention on the first ballot. 
In an address to the Union Club at Cleveland, Senator Hanna 
has described this event. Said he: "About two years 
ago — not quite that long — I began my work of de- 
votion and love to our chief. Two years ago I took from 
him my inspiration. When he laid upon me that confidence 
and said to me, ' My friend, I trust you with my future,' 
he also said, 'Mark, there are some things I will not do to 
be President of the United States, and I leave my honor in 
your hands.' I embarked upon that duty with a full heart 
for a man whom I loved, because I had learned to respect 
and honor him. It was a mission of love, inspired by that 
noble character which has no peer in the world. When I 
took that charge of McKinley's honor I swore to my Maker 
that I would return it unsullied. And when I returned 
from that memorable convention, proud and satisfied with 
the work his friends had done, I went to Canton and laid 
my report at the feet of my chieftain and I said to him, 
' McKinley, I have not forgotten the trust and I bring it 



21 

back without a blot and not a single promise to redeem.' I 
think I have a right to feel proud of that, because in the 
succession of the administration, from Lincoln's time to the 
present era, no man ever enjoyed that privilege before." 
Well might that grand Republican warrior, Mark Hanna, 
pride himself upon his work, for he had rendered to his 
party and to his country a service the effects of which will 
be felt for generations. And well may we, as Republicans 
and patriotic Americans, feel proud of Mark Hanna, under 
whose masterly generalship the party has won such glorious 
victories. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896. 

The politics of yesterday is the history of today. De- 
mocracy pitted Mr. Bryan against McKinley. The Dem- 
ocratic platform attacked the courts, the currency, the tariff, 
and the honor of the country. The free and unlimited 
coinage of silver at a ratio which did not exist was the 
Democratic panacea for all our ills. We were assured that 
the price of silver was indissolubly linked with the price of 
wheat and cotton, and that the prices of commodities would 
never rise until the price of silver was restored, nor until 
the value of a dollar was debased fifty per ceut. How wild 
and strange such doctrine sounds now ! McKinley met the 
issue squarely. " When we part with our labor, our products, 
or our property, we should receive in return money which is 
.as stable and unchanging in value as the ingenuity of 
honest men can make it. We are learning another thing, 



22 

my fellow-citizens; that no matter what kind of money we 
have, we cannot get it unless we have work. Working men 
want steady work at good vages. They are not satisfied 
with irregular work at inadequate wages. They want the 
American standard applied to both. With steady work 
they want to be paid in sound money. If there is any one 
thing which should be free from speculation and fluctuation 
it is the money of a country. Good money never makes 
bad times. We have the best country and the best men, and 
we propose to continue to have the best money." The 
country agreed with McKinley, and in November, 1896, he 
was elected President. He had said that " doubt in the busi- 
ness world is death to business." Doubt now gave way to 
certainty. Confidence was restored. The dawn of a golden 
prosperity began to appear as soon as the result of the 
election became known. Men felt that a sound currency 
was assured, and that a protective tariff would soon 
be enacted. 

mckinley's administration. 

The President was inaugurated March 4, 1897. He at 
once called Congress together in special session to wipe 
the Wilson bill from the statute book and to enact an 
American protective tariff. On July 24 that work had 
been completed by the approval of the " Dingley tariff bill," 
the excellent measure which is the law at present. At once 
a new spirit infused the productive agencies of the country. 
Confidence reappeared. Hoarded capital returned to the 



23 

channels of trade. Industry roused itself from its long 
lethargy. The legislation which had held the business 
activity of the country in bonds no longer existed. Pros- 
perity spread itself throughout the land. The sombre brow 
of labor cleared. The troubled face of the merchant 
brightened with the hope and cheer of new opportunity. 
As if at the touch of some magical wand, industry and^ 
plenty succeeded prostration and want. The commerce of 
the country increased by leaps and bounds. " Peace hath 
her victories no less renowned than war." Our captains of 
industry invaded the markets of the Old World and ex- 
changed our products with mutual profit. For more than 
a century of time, during the entire interval between the 
formation of our Government and the retirement of Cleve- 
land from the presidency, the total excess of our exports 
over imports had been only 357 million dollars. In the last 
year alone of McKinley's administration that excess was 665 
millions of dollars— nearly double what it had been in the 
entire preceding one hundred and seven years; and in the 
four years of McKinley's term of office the grand total of our 
excess of exports over imports reached the stupendous and 
inconceivable sum of two billion three hundred and fifty-four 
million dollars — an increase in four years of two billion 
dollars over the entire excess of the previous 107 years ! 
Such figures well nigh stagger the perceptive faculties ; and 
yet it is only by figures that we can measure the vast march 
made by our commerce in the last few years. 



24 



WAR CLOUDS. 

McKinley was a man of peace ; he hated the horrors and 
barbarisms of war ; yet he had hardly taken the oath of 
office before the sky was darkened with the grim portents of 
war. Spain, in the fifteenth century the mightiest power of 
the world, had formerly held half the western hemi- 
sphere subject to her empire. Her sway, always despotic 
and corrupt, had been shaken off, until, in 1896, the 
Antilles — the fairest and the last gem that remained in 
her imperial diadem, of all her western domain — rose 
in a death struggle with their oppressor. Cuba and 
Porto Rico lay in such close proximity to us as to be 
almost at our door. The fight for liberty made by the 
inhabitants of these islands was so heroic as to enlist 
the patriotic sympathies of our entire population. In her 
efforts to suppress the rebellion Spain conducted herself with 
mediaeval ferocity. Our Government had repeatedly made 
respectful representations to Spain that our interests were 
imperiled by the situation, and that such a condition could 
not be permitted to exist indefinitely. The Spanish Govern- 
ment turned a deaf ear to our remonstrances. Many reso- 
lutions had been introduced in Congress concerning the 
Cuban situation, and the Cuban status had been earnestly 
debated from every point of view. The feeling of the 
country was unmistakable. In mass meetings, in the press, 
in every channel of popular expression, the voice of the 
nation was for intervention. McKinley, almost alone, 



25 

stood like a rock for the exhaustion of every expedient 
known to diplomacy before allowing the dread appeal to 
arms. In his efforts to maintain peace he almost came to 
the breaking point with his most intimate friends and most 
trusted advisers. In this state of extreme tension one of 
our new battleships, the Maine, was blown up while peace- 
fully lying in Havana harbor. Still the President " forbore 
to open the purple testament of bleeding war.*' The gal- 
lant Sigsbee cabled, "Suspend judgment." An investiga- 
tion was held, but when it had been pronounced, after a 
most searching examination, that the Maine had been blown 
up by a submarine mine, all men knew that we had come 
to the parting of the ways. 

WAR WITH SPAIN. 

On April 18, 1898, war was formally declared to exist be- 
tween the United States and Spain. The war was prose- 
cuted with the utmost vigor and brought to a victorious 
ending within a hundred days. Once more American valor 
had been proved on land and sea and new glory crowned 
our arms. Manila bay, Santiago, and San Juan were added 
to the fields of American heroism, and the names of Dewey 
and Schley, Sampson and Roosevelt, and a host of others 
were writ large upon the roll of fame. Cuba was free. The 
heel of despotism was lifted from the necks of eight mil- 
lions of Asiatics in the Philippines and a just and benign 
sway extended over a thousand islands in the tropics of the 



26 

Orient. Many of our well-meaning people viewed the 
acquisition of our insular possessions with apprehension and 
foreboding. 

MCKINLEY ON EXPANSION. 

But McKinley went straight ahead. In his view, " the 
prophets of evil were not the builders of the Republic, nor, 
in its crises since, have they saved or served it. We will 
solve the problems which confront us untrammeled by the 
past, and wisely and courageously pursue a policy of right 
and justice in all things, making the future, under God, 
even more glorious than the past. As heretofore, so here- 
after, will the nation demonstrate its fitness to administer 
any new estate which events devolve upon it, and in the 
fear of God will ' take occasion by the hand and make the 
bounds of freedom wider yet.'" This prophecy has been 
fully justified. The new and perplexing questions resulting 
from the Spanish war have been conscientiously met and 
equitably settled. Our domain has stretched across the 
Pacific, and under the guidance of a statesmanship of 
transcendent ability no foreign complications have ensued. 
Our flag and our arms are respected in every quarter of the 
globe. Of a sudden the United States has become a world 
power not only in territory and in military prestige, but in 
commerce as well. That commerce is protected by a new 
American navy which compels the admiration of all na- 
tions. The rights of American citizenship are conceded in 
the uttermost ends of the earth. Any infringement of those 



27 

rights, whether in China, in Turkey, or in darkest Siberia, 
is met with an instant demand for reparation, and the 
power exists to enforce every just demand. 

PANAMA CANAL. 

In that magnificent valedictory to the American people 
delivered at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, he 
left to us as a legacy, which appeals to us with solemn force 
just now,- this sentiment: "We must build the Isthmian 
canal, which will unite the two oceans and give a straight 
line of water communication with the western coasts of 
Central America, South America, and Mexico." And to 
that scholarly contingent which is tendering aid and com- 
fort to the disloyal attempt to defeat the construction of the 
Panama canal he would have said kindly, yet sadly, " 0, 
ye of little faith, be not afraid ! " 

THIRD-TERM TALK. 

Hardly had McKinley been inaugurated President the 
second time when a movement began to shape itself for his 
renomination. 

It was felt by many that to interrupt a prosperity so 
widely distributed and so marvelous by a change of ad- 
ministration, would be little less than a national calamity. 
What Washington would not have and Grant could not 
obtain, McKinley, had he lived, might have had thrust 
upon him. He declined absolutely to countenance or even 
to consider this suggestion. But, except for the hand of the 



28 

assassin, it is far from impossible that the precedent and 
prejudice of more than a century would have been broken. 
During his administration a spirit of contentment and 
good will prevailed to a degree without parallel since the 
early days of the Republic. By his broad and sympathetic 
charity and his kindly and tactful expressions he progressed 
farther in obliterating the estrangement which had lingered 
between the sections of our country as a result of the rebel- 
lion, than any President since Lincoln. He inspired a spirit 
of peace and amity in all men. Hear him on the most dis- 
tracting issue of the time : " I believe in the common brother- 
hood of men. I believe that labor gets on best when capital 
gets on best, and that capital gets on best when labor is paid 
the most. Every attempt to array class against class, ' the 
classes against the masses,' section against section, labor 
against capital, ' the poor against the rich,' or interest against 
interest in the United States is in the highest degree repre- 
hensible. The most un-American of all appeals is the one 
which seeks to array labor against capital, employer against 
employed." 

EMINENT QUALITIES. 

William McKinley was a broad, constructive statesman — 
wise, capable, conservative, courageous, and safe. He had 
an elevated character, lofty ideals, a cheerful optimism, and 
an unbounded faith in the rectitude of the judgments of the 
American people. His loyalty to his friends was absolute, 
and his confidence, once bestowed, was imolicit. It was a 



29 

common remark that he bore a strong resemblance to Na- 
poleon Bonaparte, and he inspired his followers with the 
spirit which animated the Old Guard. When he spoke 
from the platform his form seemed to dilate, and he towered 
above his surroundings. As he warmed to his subject he 
spoke with a grace of diction and a fervor of conviction that 
produced the magnetic effect of one inspired. His addresses 
upon every conceivable topic were models of arrangement 
and style. He had a unique faculty, amounting to a genius, 
for concise, luminous, and epigrammatic statement. His 
pithy sayings were used as texts by other campaign orators. 
For symmetry, lucidity, and purity his speeches were mas- 
terpieces of forensic eloquence, and their number was legion. 
For twenty-five years he was in the greatest demand as a 
speaker in all parts of the country, and campaign committees 
and States vied with each other in their rivalry to secure his 
presence. For a quarter of a century his life had been one long 
campaign. He made the most phenomenal stumping tours 
in history. He sometimes made twenty speeches in a day. 
While campaigning he has been known to average fifteen 
speeches a day for a period of two months, and to return 
from his tour in as good physical condition as when he 
started. It is estimated that during his public life he had 
personally addressed ten millions of people. His nature 
was sweet, kindly, and affectionate. His love of little chil- 
dren was touching, and his constant and tender devotion to 
an invalid wife was an idyl of sentiment. He attended her 
through her years of delicate health with the courtesy of a 
knight-errant and the solicitude of a lover, and their whole 



30 

married life was a type of the holiness of a perfect union. 
His voice was well modulated and musical and of that clarion 
clearness and vibrant resonance which enables the perfect 
orator to make himself audible to the largest assemblies 
and to pla} r upon the emotions of his hearers as upon an 
instrument. Henry Clay, John B. Gough, and Henry Ward 
Beecher, among men of recent times, have produced similar 
effects. His intellectual vision embraced a continent, and 
his utterances comprehended and clarified every important 
question that has agitated the public mind for a generation. 

THE LAST SCENE. 

Thursday, September 5, 1901, had been designated as 
President's Day at the great Pan-American Exposition at 
Buffalo. The President was greeted with the acclamations 
of countless throngs, the joyous ringing of bells, the boom- 
ing of cannon, the music of patriotic airs, and every mani- 
festation of popular joy and pride. Here he delivered an 
oration which for its weight, its lofty tone, and its farsighted 
statesmanship will rank with Washington's farewell address 
to his countrymen. The next day a magnificent popular 
reception was tendered him. The President stood in the 
beautiful Temple of Music and a throng of people formed a 
line to pass him and shake his hand. The procession had 
proceeded some time when a little girl greeted the President. 
She passed on and Mr. McKinley turned and smilingly 
waved his hand to her. Next came a short Italian and im- 
mediately behind him a young man with a cloth wrapped 



31 

around his apparently injured right hand. The Italian 
passed, and the young man who followed put forth his left 
hand in the act of greeting and at the same time fired two 
shots from a revolver which he had concealed within the 
cloth which covered his right hand. One of these proved 
fatal to the President. Never was such a fiendish act com- 
mitted since Judas betrayed his Master with a kiss. The 
assassin was immediately set upon by the secret service men 
and the crowd. The President, gasping with a mortal 
wound, with a compassion almost divine, said : " Do not let 
them hurt him!" As he lost consciousness just before 
the surgical operation, he murmered, " Thy kingdom come, 
Thy will be done," and as his noble spirit took its eternal 
flight he whispered, " Nearer, my God, to Thee ; Thy will, 
not mine, be done." 

HIS GREATNESS. 

Such, in brief outline, was his career. The verdict which 
the historian will pronounce has been anticipated by his 
contemporaries. He was a wonderful and a great man. He 
would have been great in any station. True greatness is 
not to be measured by the arena in which its activities are 
displayed. Greatness in exalted place has wider recogni- 
tion and achieves more enduring fame, because of the 
magnitude of the issues with which it deals and its greater 
effect upon human events ; but inherently, real greatness is 
not reputation, nor ability, nor rank, nor fame, nor power. 
Tt is character. What boots it to humanity that some 
Croesus has transferred to his own account so much of gold 



32 

and silver and land ? Of what avail are the victories of 
the legions of the war lord over a weaker foe? Will human 
suffering be comforted by the perusal of the conquests of 
Alexander or the accumulations of the syndicates ? Will 
posterity be happier from the knowledge that one man 
was an emperor and another a millionaire ? These 
things are the gilt and tinsel of greatness, the baubles 
and fripperies of tawdry counterfeits. But the lives and 
the characters of Washington, of Lincoln, of Grant, of 
Jefferson, of McKinley, and of Roosevelt will shine through 
the ages with a radiance that will allay the pangs of millions 
of human hearts and inspire noble deeds and Christian lives 
in generations yet unborn. Here is the true greatness of 
men and of governments. If the youth of our country shall 
realize this and emulate these grand examples, then, indeed, 
will our beloved country be blessed of all nations. When 
we consider the life, the character, and the work of William 
McKinley ; his services to his country as orator, soldier, and 
statesman ; when we are permitted to withdraw the veil of 
his private and domestic life and to look upon his unfailing- 
courtesy to his neighbors, his unflinching attachment to his 
friends, and his kindly devotion to his family ; when we 
realize the beauty and purity and the mingled sweetness and 
strength of the life of this great man of the people, we are 
convinced that his is " one of the few, the immortal names, 
that are not born to die." To him may be justly applied 
the words of England's greatest bard : " His life was gentle, 
and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand 
up and say to all the world, this was a man." 



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